Gold Rush: Alaska (2010–…): Season 3, Episode 11 - Dozer Wars - full transcript
Todd and Dave go to war over the dozer they both need to keep mining and Todd banks on finding virgin ground beneath a pile of dredge tailings. Parker faces a crew rebellion and Dakota Fred attacks the Glory Hole with his secret weapon- the bedrock shark.
.
NARRATOR:
At the edge of the Arctic circle,
four crews struggle
to hit the mother lode.
Maybe I bit off
more than I can chew.
The Hoffman's now have
two crews on two claims
chasing over a million
dollars in gold.
If we're gonna get to 1,000 ounces,
it's gonna be because
of this ground here.
At Quartz Creek,
Todd is finally ready to catch up
with his Indian River rivals.
TODD: Nugget, nugget.
MAN: Man!
Three seasons of mining
and that's our biggest nugget.
At Indian River, he starts a war,
pulling rank on Dave...
You're not gonna like it
but I got to take this D9, Dave.
Can we talk about this?
I'm not talking about it.
That's just the way
it's gonna go down.
..and Dave takes matters
into his own hands.
I'm gonna hijack this. Hopefully,
Todd doesn't know it will be gone.
What the frick?
At the Big Nugget mine
after dumping good pay dirt,
Parker faces a mutiny.
He's losing thousands of dollars!
You're guaranteeing that we won't
see any gold if we keep doing that.
PARKER: For you to say
I'm not smart enough,
that's a pile of (BLEEP).
And over at Porcupine Creek...
Oh hell! What did I break?
With no gold and
even more breakdowns,
Dustin snaps.
It would have already been here
had you listened to me.
Thinks (BLEEP) money grows on trees.
(THEME MUSIC)
(MUSIC FADES)
At Quartz Creek, it's 90 days into
the 150-day Klondike mining season.
MAN ON RADIO: Hammer down, buddy.
The Hoffman crew is finally ready
to start catching gold
with their new turbo trommel.
I wish I could say that this trommel
was easy, but it hasn't been.
It's been a fricking nightmare,
but it's here and it's running.
We got 1,000 ounces to get, OK?
We are way behind at this point.
So now, we have got to be successful
here at Quartz with this trommel.
Let's get going!
The trommel arrived on site
seven weeks late.
It took two more weeks to swap out
its underpowered hydraulic motor...
JACK: Here it goes!
..with an electric motor
four times the size.
Now, to finally register some gold,
Todd pushes his crew
to run 2,000 yards a day
through the turbo trommel.
Ready?
JACK: Come on, let's go.
Roll. Fire it up.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER)
If they can run that much dirt,
they can produce
20 ounces of gold a day,
worth over $30,000.
OK, Jack, put her in.
First scoop on its way.
Perfect.
That's looking pretty good there.
Sounded pretty good.
It's got a lot of material in it.
Jack's putting it through it quick.
When that thing is chopping,
it's making money.
Right now, we're just going for it.
This thing is like a Cookie Monster,
it's eating through this
pile of dirt so fast.
It's keeping up with us,
I'll tell you that.
Men, shut it down.
After two hours of running,
Todd stops the trommel
to inspect the sluice.
Todd has to be sure
he's catching good gold
before he runs too much
stockpiled pay dirt.
TODD: Whoa! Get in here, guys.
(SHOUTS OF EXCITEMENT)
JACK: Oh, what? A nugget there.
There's a nugget right here.
TODD: Nugget, nugget.
We don't know how much we ran.
I think it looks like
about 500 yards.
Starting to get pieces like that.
We're on it, guys.
(WHOOPING)
Fricking awesome! I love it!
(JACK LAUGHS)
Three seasons of mining,
and that's our biggest
nugget right there.
I wonder what's down below it.
I think we got something
special coming, guys.
Hey, guys, great news.
Let's keep on running.
I'm gonna fire it back up.
MAN: Oh, baby!
TODD: Clear.
(ENGINE STARTS UP)
I never dreamed we'd be into nuggets
and it's exciting!
It's gonna run all night.
It's great, you know.
Any time you see gold like that,
try to stop us!
Gold now, huh?
We have been waiting
and waiting and waiting
and we're finally getting
on the scoreboard,
because now we're getting
some fricking gold.
Southwest at Indian River...
..Dave Turin's team is putting
the crew at Quartz Creek to shame
in the race to find gold.
But, they've started to hit bedrock
in their first cut.
The cut's getting
close to being done.
We've got this pay dirt right here
all shoved up
so there's probably,
12 days of run out.
Next cut is right up here.
Right up on the hillside,
there's a bench up there.
We had it drilled and tested
and it was pretty good gold,
so we gotta have that cut opened up.
Over the last two months,
Dave's crew has moved 75,000
yards of dirt from cut one.
We got gold, boys.
We're ready to go.
They're responsible for all of
the Hoffman gold found so far,
170 ounces worth around $272,000.
Holy cow!
TODD: Here's our last cleanup.
Last week, the cut began
to run out of earth.
Todd pleaded with claim owner
Greg McNeil
to secure new ground at Indian River.
We got the bench, we're on our way.
Now, with Dave's wash plant consuming
1,000 yards of pay dirt
from cut one each day,
he needs to open up a new cut
on the D10 dozer.
But, he's having trouble
with the dozer's blade.
Stupid dozer's getting terrible.
I got to be constantly
pulling up on this control lever
to keep this blade off the ground.
I can't even get the blade up
fast enough at the end of my push.
Come on, come on, lift up.
Come on.
Dang it! I keep losing the blade.
It's driving me nuts!
Oh, man!
(BULLDOZER BEEPING)
Yeah, we got a real serious problem
right now. I can't run this dozer.
This thing is not working right.
I'm gonna have to get Mitch here
to take a look at this thing.
Hey, Mitch you got a copy down here?
Yeah.
I don't think I can run this thing.
What's going on, dude?
Look at that blade.
Yeah.
Supposed to stay in the air.
Yeah, that's bad.
The blade is powered by hydraulics
that seem to be losing pressure.
At the rate we're going,
they're breaking faster
than I can fix them so...
Hopefully, I can get this thing
up and running here before too long.
Just got to keep
plugging away at it,
keep working on it and try
and make something happen here.
Otherwise, before we know it,
everything's gonna be broken,
they're gonna be out of dirt so...
Lots to do in
a short period of time.
The Hoffman's have
another dozer, the D9,
but it's been broken down
and waiting for parts for six weeks.
DAVE: It's absolutely impossible
to goldmine up here without a dozer.
With both dozers down,
Indian River will soon
be at a standstill.
We gotta have another cut opened up.
If we do not open up another cut
with one of these dozers,
we're gonna be (BLEEP) up again.
South...
..in Porcupine Creek Alaska...
..Dakota Fred is digging down to what
he thinks is an ancient waterfall.
(RATTLING AND CREAKING)
That's the material we're getting
out of here, very little at a time.
Very little.
There's that big potato!
20.8 ounces.
Fred discovered almost
$30,000 worth of gold
in a hole, he believes,
is part of an ancient waterfall.
I'm looking for treasure!
(FRED CHUCKLES)
If he's right,
there could be thousands,
even millions in gold,
right beneath him.
Very hard digging.
But, the hard, rocky ground
is proving too much
for the 270's big bucket.
Just ain't doing it.
I'm gonna have to do something else.
We really need something
to rip that stuff up.
This thing came in the other day.
We affectionately call this bucket
the Bedrock Shark.
That is a nasty-looking
little bucket there.
These are some real ripping teeth.
I mean, they are rippers.
Come on down.
(DUSTIN STRAINS)
MELODY: Oh, yeah.
Come on.
Phew!
So, the difference is,
is it takes him three scratches
to get one full bucket
out there right now,
because the stuff's so hard to dig.
We're hoping this one digs easier.
So, we get to try it out,
see how it goes.
So far, so good.
It's ripping but...
The only thing is,
it's a pretty small bucket!
All right. What did we get?
(LOUD BOOM)
Oh hell, what did I break?
I just broke something.
Oh... For crying out loud!
Didn't see that coming!
We're screwed.
.
.
NARRATOR: Big Nugget mine,
southeast Alaska.
It's two thirds of the way
through the mining season,
and 18-year-old mining boss
Parker Schnabel,
has banked just 80 ounces
of his 300 ounce gold.
(BLEEPED OUT ABUSE)
He thinks a gold-rich pay-streak,
lies nearly eight metres down
on bedrock.
But, to get to it,
he needs to remove
a vast area of overburden.
PARKER: This is gonna work
pretty well, I think.
I'll pull all this in
and put it over here,
and then you can nose into that
and try put your butt end
on that side of that track.
OK.
This is dump site, right?
Yes, sir. The next 500 loads.
Instead of running the overburden
through the wash plant,
Parker's decided to dump it
at the edge of the claim.
We're gonna build ourselves a hole.
Earlier this season,
Parker got nearly $130,000 in gold
out of a shallow pay-streak
on Emerson Trench.
Now, here's a nice pay dirt. Money.
But, that pay-streak soon ran out.
I don't know
what we can do about it.
Then, Parker drilled Emerson Trench
in the search for a second pay-streak
that could lie on bedrock.
MAN: Looks like bedrock.
They hit at 26 feet.
Twenty-six is better
than I expected.
Now, Parker and Rick have dumped
the first 5,000 yards of overburden
off the edge of the claim.
Oh, look at that! Beautiful.
But, Glen Billeter,
Parker's gold recovery expert,
thinks the guys
are throwing away gold.
I'm gonna go down and get
some samples out of the,
out of the material
they're throwing away.
I hate to see them throwing
good material away so...
I've got to go down and test it.
I can't stand it.
I believe that there's gold
throughout this whole area.
and we just need to follow it all.
But, Parker has a different
idea about that and so...
I hope I can prove him wrong.
Parker believes there is a rich
pay-streak lying just above bedrock.
But, Glen believes the overburden
Parker is discarding,
contains good gold.
If there is gold in Glen's test,
Parker could be losing
thousands of dollars.
Holy crap!
This is like crazy stuff!
This is so rich it's like,
it's like scary rich.
We should be running it, it's crazy.
We're here to run ground,
not to throw it away.
It sickens my stomach to think of
what they're throwing away.
It just, it's sickening.
I think I need to show him this!
I'm gonna take this over.
I'm gonna go show him.
Parker.
(WHISTLES) Parker.
I don't mind waiting,
what I don't like is, you know,
Parker thinks it's OK
to throw away good material.
His grandfather would be horrified.
He's losing thousands of dollars.
He's throwing away
thousands of dollars.
He just isn't smart enough
to know that.
Parker, you're throwing away
a lot of money.
That's a good value, Parker.
Look at it!
The good ground is at bedrock.
Well, I'm...
If that means we're moving ground,
that pays five dollars a yard
to get to ground that pays 50,
then we're gonna do that.
If we can do four to five ounces
a day out of that material,
it's worth it to run it.
It's not four to five ounce a day
material, Glen.
Well, I don't know.
It's not.
And for you to say
I'm not smart enough...
I didn't...
That's a pile of (BLEEP).
Well...
OK?
I think we need to run the material.
That's just disrespectful.
We can sit here and we can say,
"You're throwing away bad dirt.
"Don't throw it away let's test it.
We don't know what's down there."
Or we can just do the (BLEEP) dig
and move the (BLEEP) dirt
and figure out what's
down there for ourselves.
North at Quartz Creek...
Todd's new turbo trommel has been
running dirt for two days.
JACK: The trommel is working,
it's working great.
If we feed it and it
eats it and digests it,
poops rock out the other end,
that's what we're after.
While they were waiting
for the trommel to arrive,
the Hoffman's continually
stockpiled pay dirt.
But now, the trommel
is working at full capacity
and their stockpile
is rapidly running out.
At 200 yards an hour, we're gonna be
out of dirt pretty quick here.
What have we got left?
A week or less.
So, we need to find another place
to go and quick.
I know it, I know it.
Ray Brosseuk, the trommel's designer,
has over 20 years' experience
of mining in the Klondike.
He thinks their next move
should be to a previously mined area
over at Calder Creek.
I think the solution is right here.
On this side here,
the dredge has gone through.
You need to take off
this material on this edge.
You've got virgin ground from
halfway under here to that bank.
The way the dredges are set up,
their first pass when they went in,
they had to sacrifice, they actually
buried virgin ground behind them.
In the first half
of the 20th century,
massive dredges mined Calder Creek.
They winched themselves forward,
digging as they went.
They processed the dirt and left
the tailings in wide arcs behind.
But, the dredges often
couldn't reach or covered up
what miners called side pay,
a narrow strip of land
at the edge of the valley.
Ray believes that underneath
the old tailings,
there is good side pay.
Virgin ground from here to the bank.
There's enough along this strip,
if you open this up,
you'd be able to mine this
the rest of the summer.
You know we're behind, you know
I'm trying to get to 1,000 ounces.
Yep.
If this was you, and you were in
my situation, is this what you'd do?
Exactly where I'd be. I'd get on
the Cat and open this up right now.
I'll have this opened up
in two days.
All right, guys, let's get started.
Todd now has to move tailings
two metres deep,
from an area the size
of a football pitch
to get down to the virgin ground.
For that, he'll need a dozer.
But, both dozers are out of action,
sitting idle at Indian River.
Until Mitch can fix the D10,
or parts arrive for the D9,
neither crew can open their new cuts.
Hey, Mitch. I've got some good news.
Yo, yeah.
Finally we got bolts for the nine.
Perfect.
Mitch has been waiting for new bolts
to replace the idler wheel
that holds the D9 dozer's
track in place.
But first, he has to get
the old bolts out.
The bolts up here are really tight.
They're not wanting to come out.
So, we're gonna try
the torque multiplier.
Hopefully we get them broke loose,
might have to put heat on them.
No, we're not getting anything.
We're having trouble
getting these bolts out.
It's really in there.
It's really stuck.
ANDY: Is it coming?
We just got the last bolt off.
(BLEEP) No, we just broke
the last bolt off.
Oh (BLEEP)!
We just broke the last bolt off.
So, this upper hole here,
our bolt snapped off in it.
We tried heating it,
soaking it with lubrication.
Nothing was working.
Until Mitch can remove the bolt,
Todd and Dave will have to wait
to open up their new cuts.
I'm getting really tired
of this dozer.
Clapped out piece of (BLEEP).
.
.
NARRATOR: In the Klondike,
both Hoffman dozers are broken down.
No-one is able to get to gold
on virgin ground.
Go ahead and pick your blade up.
At Indian River,
Mitch the crew mechanic,
is racing to fix the D9 dozer,
but a broken bolt
has halted any progress.
If I was Mitch right now,
I'd probably kill myself
because I have no patience for this.
There's nothing up here that's easy,
everything is hard.
Todd has arrived, desperate to
open up the new Calder Creek cut.
How's our dozers?
The bolt sheared off in there
and we can't get it out.
If we don't get our dozers,
I mean, we're not gonna get the cut,
then we're screwed anyway.
So, just stay on it, man.
No problem.
The entire Hoffman operation
is now at a standstill,
because of one broken ten-inch bolt.
(DRILLING)
Just drilling out these bolts,
trying to get a hole
put through them
so I can get some heat on this.
When you heat metal up really hot,
when it cools down it shrinks a bit.
Hopefully that will relieve it
off the threads and then,
I weld a bolt to it
and then try and spin it out.
(SPARKS CRACKLING)
If I do it wrong, yeah, I could
destroy this piece right here,
so I have to be very careful.
Looks like it's moving a little bit.
OK, it moved a little bit easy,
but now it's getting tight.
Then it locks up pretty good again
so I have to be real careful here,
I don't snap this bolt off
that I welded on.
So, there we have it.
It feels pretty good.
You can see the hole I drilled
all the way through.
I was able to get some lubrication
to come down through the threads.
This might not be how most people
would do it back home,
but out here, this is what
I had to work with,
so I'm really happy with
how this turned out.
At Porcupine Creek, Dakota Fred
has mechanical problems of his own.
He's broken the bucket
on his only excavator.
MELODY: We can't do any mining
until the excavator is fixed.
Without it, we're dead.
Fred's called in Kenny Waldo,
a local mechanic.
DUSTIN: Oh, it's big.
That's a major breakdown
right there.
(WHISTLES)
I can't believe that's gone.
Yeah, they just snapped right off.
Like they was nothing.
That's big, that's...
(DUSTIN SIGHS)
Both linkages to the excavator bucket
have sheared off.
Fred checks the damage.
They're twisted,
so they're not weldable.
They're totally out of service,
these are.
KENNY: It's an expensive fix,
you know.
If it was me, I think I'd bail...
(LAUGHS) And go get
something better!
Something newer.
But, Fred isn't afraid
of a challenge.
If we just take a piece of plate
and weld it right across.
So, if we took two of these,
put them together,
and then put the truss in between,
we would have it.
Fred's plan is to replace
the broken factory-made linkage
with a part made entirely
from scrap metal.
His bush fix will
have to be strong enough
to handle the full force
of the 26-ton excavator.
Now, Fred's only hope
is an old set of grizzly bars.
Gonna use them bars
to make the side links.
We're gonna take them to town
to the shop,
where we've got more tools
and more iron.
Fred's good at this,
but I don't know if he's this good.
If we don't get another excavator
or get this thing fixed,
we'll just sit here and...
..hope we were, wish we were mining,
because we're not mining right now.
All we're doing is
looking at broken stuff.
I can't do anything.
There's nothing I can do.
I feel kind of helpless.
The plan of attack right now is...
We have to quickly design something.
This is our master plan.
This is the way it was.
Then we're going to interpret it
a little differently,
but we'll make something
that will work.
By tomorrow noon, we'll be digging.
One-by-six steel.
(SPARKS CRACKLING)
Are we ready to do a little welding?
We got about an hour
of welding left on it.
We'll hook up the trailer,
haul everything back,
and...put it back together again.
At the Big Nugget mine,
Parker has dumped 5,000 tons
of overburden,
in his haste to get down to what
he believes is much better pay dirt.
But, Glen remains convinced Parker
is dumping large quantities of gold.
Come on! You've got to stop
throwing this stuff away!
We just need to run it.
Glen approaches the other
members of the crew.
I think that's the biggest mistake
we're doing right now
because I tested that wall
underneath those boulders
and there was good value
in one five-gallon bucket.
It's tough for me because
this is my first season but,
you're not gonna find gold if you're
just dumping dirt over a cliff.
He's throwing away a lot of gold.
Yeah.
I don't know if he's gonna
listen to me at all.
Ultimately,
it's gonna be his decision.
Big Nugget veteran Gary and his new
recruit Rick, confront Parker.
What's up, guys?
Look, you know I don't usually
question your decisions,
but we found out that there's
gold in this dirt and...
I got to know why are we tossing it?
Why aren't we running it?
Well, I mean it's marginally better
to throw it away.
You're guaranteeing we won't see
any gold if we keep doing that.
You think your grandpa would
throw this stuff away?
Gary, you've been here
longer than I have.
Traditionally, we've just
stripped off the top surface
and run everything from there
down to bedrock.
Right, he'd be running all this.
Everything would be ran.
If there's a fair enough amount in
it to cover the cost of running it.
It's worth it.
I mean, yeah, we can start running
some of it and see what happens.
I trust your guys' judgment and
we'll go ahead and give it a shot.
Let's start hauling it to the plant.
You got it.
(ENGINE STARTS UP)
It's a tough decision
for Parker to make,
because he's gambling with
the future of the mine on it.
Rick and Gary coming over to
talk to me was an unusual thing.
I expect it from Glen but...
Glen is pretty opinionated
about everything,
and so Gary and Rick,
it's a bit different.
They're a big part of the reason
why we've had a successful summer.
I think it's pretty important
to do what it takes
to keep their support
and keep the team together.
At Indian River, Mitch,
the Hoffman crew mechanic,
is finally putting their
D9 dozer back together.
Logan, just yell really loud if that
thing starts walking off the side.
LOGAN: OK!
Voila.
That was one (BLEEP) project.
(LAUGHS)
It was a long, hard day,
but we finally got it.
Now it's done, hopefully it lasts
a while before it breaks down again
and we can go push some dirt.
There is now one working dozer and
both Dave and Todd need it right away
to open up their new cuts.
But, Todd is the boss.
Hey, you're not gonna like it
but I got to take this D9, Dave.
Can we talk about this?
I'm not talking about it.
That's just the way
it's gonna go down so...
Come on, seriously,
let's just talk about this.
OK, here's the deal.
We've been supporting you,
you guys are kicking some ass.
Now I got to get this thing going,
I got to take the equipment.
That's the only thing making money.
I know but...
We're not gonna get to 1,000 ounces
unless we're running two plants.
I get that.
You guys are doing good.
But, let me tell you,
we're not setting any records.
We got to have two plants running.
I got to get this set.
That's the way it's gonna be?
You're calling the shots.
..how it's going down.
That's golden boy Dave
and sometimes I got to
pull rank on him,
even though he's in, in life,
he's probably a higher rank than me.
But, I don't really care.
It's my equipment, my gold mine,
and that's the way
it's gonna go down.
But Dave has other ideas!
I have a lot of time to make up,
so I'm up early,
I'm hijacking the dozer.
I keep expecting to see
Todd show up.
Once I'm in the seat, he's gonna
have a hard time getting me out.
(ENGINE REVVING)
What the frick?
No, I am not getting
out of this dozer.
"We're gonna talk about this"
was the last thing I heard,
then all of a sudden Dave's got it.
Todd's not real
happy with me right now.
He is the authority
and I am under his authority,
but, Todd is not my boss.
I don't wanna talk about it
a whole lot, but no matter what,
there's gonna be tension,
there's gonna be some issues.
Are they coming?
You're damn right they're coming.
With the D9, Dave can finally
start opening up the bench cut
that he hopes is rich with gold.
(CRASHING)
Oh, it's nice to have a dozer back.
Here we go.
Opening cut two at Indian River.
Good day.
At Porcupine Creek, Alaska,
Dakota Fred is back with
the excavator linkage
he welded from scrap metal.
So, what did you
create for us this time?
Well, let's see what we got.
Oh! There's our new linkage.
Watch your fingers,
that thing is heavy.
That's a monstrous piece.
Fred's crazy, man.
(GRUNTING)
Using Fred's handmade linkage,
they refit the 270's original bucket.
The rocks are so big out there,
that they won't even fit
inside that little bucket.
We're in a hurry.
We wanna get to the bedrock.
FRED: Well, it's all greased up
and put back together.
I'm gonna give it a try.
Fred did a tremendous repair.
I mean, I don't know anybody
that does repairs like that.
He's gonna put it to the test today
and with any luck it's gonna hold up
and we're gonna be able
to move some dirt.
Oh, Nelly Belle! Hyah! Let's go.
Fred's gonna start
digging in a minute
and then we'll find out real quick
if his part's gonna hold.
If it doesn't hold,
it will rip apart.
It will just fall apart real quick.
(BULLDOZER BEEPING)
So far, so good.
Feels good, really good.
It's always nice to get back
to digging again.
The improvised linkage is rock solid.
Dakota Fred is back on his way down
to glory hole gold.
(BULLDOZER BEEPING)
(METAL SQUEAKING)
(METALLIC CLANG)
But, after just two hours,
Fred's luck runs out again.
All right, game's over.
Game is over.
Another breakdown (BLEEP) thing.
This time, it's not the bucket.
Oh (BLEEP)!
It's the idler wheel mount
that Fred fixed last month.
The pin came out again.
This is Fred's makeshift
and I got to tell you how sick I am
of him fixing
makeshift stuff right now.
There is no temporary
in Fred's life.
When he says the word temporary,
he means permanent.
Forever.
Dustin's frustrated.
We've been talking about this
for three weeks and all you do
is keep adding steel to it and
letting it get more and more bad.
(BLEEP) weld some more stuff on it.
it will last a half a day at a time.
Yeah.
Just...
Well, figure out how long it's
gonna take you to get the part.
It would have already been here
had you listened to me.
They have some in Denver, order it.
I've been doing this
for three weeks, Fred!
I've been trying
to make this not happen.
I said when it happens, you're gonna
wish you had the (BLEEP) pin.
I didn't wanna spend a damn $1,000
on something I can fix.
Thinks (BLEEP) money grows on trees.
"Go buy a new one." Yeah, right!
I didn't wanna spend
a thousand bucks to buy a new one.
I didn't have the money.
At Quartz Creek,
Todd's massive new trommel
is making short work
of his stockpiled pay dirt.
The success of his season,
now depends on getting
new pay dirt at Calder Creek.
But, Todd has a problem,
Dave Turin has their only working
dozer over at Indian River,
and he won't give it up.
Fortunately, their mechanic Mitch,
is close to getting their
second dozer, the D10,
up and running.
I can see a lot
of metal debris in here.
That's not good because that's going
through all your hydraulic system.
Hopefully it hasn't
caused a lot of damage.
This piston had scarring on it,
so instead of it moving
freely back and forth,
it was seized in the bore.
I had to pound it out of there,
cleaned it up,
and getting ready to put
this thing back together,
and hope everything
is dialled in with it.
There we go, perfect.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Got this machine back running.
It's a good feeling.
Hopefully things
keep going this way.
With the D10 finally fixed,
Andy gets started moving
the old tailings at Calder Creek.
If this ground is as good
as we think it is,
the dividends are gonna be huge.
The only way we're gonna
see what's in it,
is to start clearing some ground.
.
.
NARRATOR: It's 9:00pm
in the Klondike.
Andy Spinks plans to work all night
stripping dredge tailings
at Calder Creek.
ANDY: I mean, it's a Friday night,
most guys probably go to town.
But, I didn't come up here to be
away from my family for five months
to go to town on Friday night.
I came up here to work.
There's 24 hours in a day.
There's not eight, not ten, not 12,
so as long as I can stay awake,
I'm gonna get Todd the yardage that
he needs to run through that plant.
At the Big Nugget mine,
Parker's crew has convinced him
to run the overburden
from Emerson Trench.
Hopefully we'll find some gold,
to get us over this kind of
mid season lull,
because we're having one
and it's tough.
They've run the wash plant
for three days,
costing Parker around $6,000
in fuel and labour.
It's very important there's gold
in this material, it's...
We've spent a lot of money
trying to get here.
Now they'll find out
if it was all worth it.
RICK: How's it going?
Good.
So, we've been doing some clean up
from this overburden on Emerson,
and we've got a fairly
decent amount of gold.
Wow.
I know you didn't wanna run that,
but we got something out of it.
So, we'll weigh her up
and see what we've got.
They need more than
four ounces of gold,
just to break even.
It's about 12 ounces.
12 ounces of gold is worth
nearly $20,000.
Because Parker gave in
and listened to his crew,
he's made a $13,000 profit.
Seeing gold in an overburden
gives us a real encouragement
that there's big gold
laying down on the bedrock.
I know we got off to a rough start,
but you've been doing a good job.
Thanks.
I appreciate it.
I hope that is the beginning of
a turning point in our relationship.
I'm gonna continue to do the best
job I can for the Big Nugget mine
and to make this place profitable.
It's an enormous amount
of pressure for a young person
that was thrown into running this
multi-million dollar operation.
It's a, it's, it's a big
responsibility.
At Quartz Creek...
..Andy Spinks has worked
through the night
to strip the tailings on
their new Calder Creek cut.
Todd arrives to see if
their new ground is good.
TODD: Hey, here's
the $10,000 question.
Do we really have
virgin side pay here?
ANDY: We do. That's all virgin.
(BLEEP) it goes a mile and a half!
Yeah.
We could have a hundred feet wide
by a mile and a half,
and most of the gold was
on this side of the valley.
Yep.
This might be our ace in the hole.
If we're gonna get to 1,000 ounces,
it's probably gonna be
because of this ground.
It doesn't get any better.
This is easy strip and a lot of this
is already thawed.
So, what I'm hoping to do,
is bring Henry Rennick in
and go ahead and poke some holes
up here on this bench.
This might be it.
Maybe our, maybe our fortunes
have finally changed a little bit.
Todd calls in Henry, a local legend,
to test the side pay.
JACK: What we're hoping is that
that's gold diarrhoea.
HENRY: Second hole.
Second hole.
As Jack and Henry drill,
they get a surprise visit
from Greg McNeil.
What's going on down here?
Ray and Todd got
their heads together
and thought this was virgin ground.
They thought that the tailings
had got stuck out over here,
was from the dredge.
This was all dredged.
It's all dredged clear to the creek.
They swore up and down
this hadn't been mined, oh yeah.
All been mined.
Henry's test results
confirm the bad news.
Well, it looks like the dredge dug
it down to about 13 feet here, Jack.
This is all dredge slickings
and dredge tailings.
This is all stuff
that the dredge washed already.
Todd's throwing a lot of eggs
into this basket.
The 'get out of jail free' card
just evaporated
right here in this hole.
The ground Todd was counting on to
hit his 1,000 ounce gold, is barren.
JACK: The dredge got all
the freaking gold. It's gone.
Wasn't any good right here.
This is worthless.
We wasted a lot of money right here,
you know, and time and effort too.
Is it gonna save our butt?
It's my fault,
so I've taken blame for it.
JACK: Calder is dead.
It's, it's over.
That's it, it's finished,
the fat lady sang.
You know, the whole thing
is over with, you know?
You can kiss it goodbye,
because it's not gonna happen.
Right now, I feel like I'm failing.
I never set out to be
a great leader of men.
I'm gonna lead you to the promised
land of gold, you know?
I never grew up thinking,
"Oh, some day" you know.
This is just where I find myself
and to be honest with you,
maybe I bit off more
than I can chew.
subtitles by Deluxe
.
NARRATOR:
At the edge of the Arctic circle,
four crews struggle
to hit the mother lode.
Maybe I bit off
more than I can chew.
The Hoffman's now have
two crews on two claims
chasing over a million
dollars in gold.
If we're gonna get to 1,000 ounces,
it's gonna be because
of this ground here.
At Quartz Creek,
Todd is finally ready to catch up
with his Indian River rivals.
TODD: Nugget, nugget.
MAN: Man!
Three seasons of mining
and that's our biggest nugget.
At Indian River, he starts a war,
pulling rank on Dave...
You're not gonna like it
but I got to take this D9, Dave.
Can we talk about this?
I'm not talking about it.
That's just the way
it's gonna go down.
..and Dave takes matters
into his own hands.
I'm gonna hijack this. Hopefully,
Todd doesn't know it will be gone.
What the frick?
At the Big Nugget mine
after dumping good pay dirt,
Parker faces a mutiny.
He's losing thousands of dollars!
You're guaranteeing that we won't
see any gold if we keep doing that.
PARKER: For you to say
I'm not smart enough,
that's a pile of (BLEEP).
And over at Porcupine Creek...
Oh hell! What did I break?
With no gold and
even more breakdowns,
Dustin snaps.
It would have already been here
had you listened to me.
Thinks (BLEEP) money grows on trees.
(THEME MUSIC)
(MUSIC FADES)
At Quartz Creek, it's 90 days into
the 150-day Klondike mining season.
MAN ON RADIO: Hammer down, buddy.
The Hoffman crew is finally ready
to start catching gold
with their new turbo trommel.
I wish I could say that this trommel
was easy, but it hasn't been.
It's been a fricking nightmare,
but it's here and it's running.
We got 1,000 ounces to get, OK?
We are way behind at this point.
So now, we have got to be successful
here at Quartz with this trommel.
Let's get going!
The trommel arrived on site
seven weeks late.
It took two more weeks to swap out
its underpowered hydraulic motor...
JACK: Here it goes!
..with an electric motor
four times the size.
Now, to finally register some gold,
Todd pushes his crew
to run 2,000 yards a day
through the turbo trommel.
Ready?
JACK: Come on, let's go.
Roll. Fire it up.
(ENGINE TURNS OVER)
If they can run that much dirt,
they can produce
20 ounces of gold a day,
worth over $30,000.
OK, Jack, put her in.
First scoop on its way.
Perfect.
That's looking pretty good there.
Sounded pretty good.
It's got a lot of material in it.
Jack's putting it through it quick.
When that thing is chopping,
it's making money.
Right now, we're just going for it.
This thing is like a Cookie Monster,
it's eating through this
pile of dirt so fast.
It's keeping up with us,
I'll tell you that.
Men, shut it down.
After two hours of running,
Todd stops the trommel
to inspect the sluice.
Todd has to be sure
he's catching good gold
before he runs too much
stockpiled pay dirt.
TODD: Whoa! Get in here, guys.
(SHOUTS OF EXCITEMENT)
JACK: Oh, what? A nugget there.
There's a nugget right here.
TODD: Nugget, nugget.
We don't know how much we ran.
I think it looks like
about 500 yards.
Starting to get pieces like that.
We're on it, guys.
(WHOOPING)
Fricking awesome! I love it!
(JACK LAUGHS)
Three seasons of mining,
and that's our biggest
nugget right there.
I wonder what's down below it.
I think we got something
special coming, guys.
Hey, guys, great news.
Let's keep on running.
I'm gonna fire it back up.
MAN: Oh, baby!
TODD: Clear.
(ENGINE STARTS UP)
I never dreamed we'd be into nuggets
and it's exciting!
It's gonna run all night.
It's great, you know.
Any time you see gold like that,
try to stop us!
Gold now, huh?
We have been waiting
and waiting and waiting
and we're finally getting
on the scoreboard,
because now we're getting
some fricking gold.
Southwest at Indian River...
..Dave Turin's team is putting
the crew at Quartz Creek to shame
in the race to find gold.
But, they've started to hit bedrock
in their first cut.
The cut's getting
close to being done.
We've got this pay dirt right here
all shoved up
so there's probably,
12 days of run out.
Next cut is right up here.
Right up on the hillside,
there's a bench up there.
We had it drilled and tested
and it was pretty good gold,
so we gotta have that cut opened up.
Over the last two months,
Dave's crew has moved 75,000
yards of dirt from cut one.
We got gold, boys.
We're ready to go.
They're responsible for all of
the Hoffman gold found so far,
170 ounces worth around $272,000.
Holy cow!
TODD: Here's our last cleanup.
Last week, the cut began
to run out of earth.
Todd pleaded with claim owner
Greg McNeil
to secure new ground at Indian River.
We got the bench, we're on our way.
Now, with Dave's wash plant consuming
1,000 yards of pay dirt
from cut one each day,
he needs to open up a new cut
on the D10 dozer.
But, he's having trouble
with the dozer's blade.
Stupid dozer's getting terrible.
I got to be constantly
pulling up on this control lever
to keep this blade off the ground.
I can't even get the blade up
fast enough at the end of my push.
Come on, come on, lift up.
Come on.
Dang it! I keep losing the blade.
It's driving me nuts!
Oh, man!
(BULLDOZER BEEPING)
Yeah, we got a real serious problem
right now. I can't run this dozer.
This thing is not working right.
I'm gonna have to get Mitch here
to take a look at this thing.
Hey, Mitch you got a copy down here?
Yeah.
I don't think I can run this thing.
What's going on, dude?
Look at that blade.
Yeah.
Supposed to stay in the air.
Yeah, that's bad.
The blade is powered by hydraulics
that seem to be losing pressure.
At the rate we're going,
they're breaking faster
than I can fix them so...
Hopefully, I can get this thing
up and running here before too long.
Just got to keep
plugging away at it,
keep working on it and try
and make something happen here.
Otherwise, before we know it,
everything's gonna be broken,
they're gonna be out of dirt so...
Lots to do in
a short period of time.
The Hoffman's have
another dozer, the D9,
but it's been broken down
and waiting for parts for six weeks.
DAVE: It's absolutely impossible
to goldmine up here without a dozer.
With both dozers down,
Indian River will soon
be at a standstill.
We gotta have another cut opened up.
If we do not open up another cut
with one of these dozers,
we're gonna be (BLEEP) up again.
South...
..in Porcupine Creek Alaska...
..Dakota Fred is digging down to what
he thinks is an ancient waterfall.
(RATTLING AND CREAKING)
That's the material we're getting
out of here, very little at a time.
Very little.
There's that big potato!
20.8 ounces.
Fred discovered almost
$30,000 worth of gold
in a hole, he believes,
is part of an ancient waterfall.
I'm looking for treasure!
(FRED CHUCKLES)
If he's right,
there could be thousands,
even millions in gold,
right beneath him.
Very hard digging.
But, the hard, rocky ground
is proving too much
for the 270's big bucket.
Just ain't doing it.
I'm gonna have to do something else.
We really need something
to rip that stuff up.
This thing came in the other day.
We affectionately call this bucket
the Bedrock Shark.
That is a nasty-looking
little bucket there.
These are some real ripping teeth.
I mean, they are rippers.
Come on down.
(DUSTIN STRAINS)
MELODY: Oh, yeah.
Come on.
Phew!
So, the difference is,
is it takes him three scratches
to get one full bucket
out there right now,
because the stuff's so hard to dig.
We're hoping this one digs easier.
So, we get to try it out,
see how it goes.
So far, so good.
It's ripping but...
The only thing is,
it's a pretty small bucket!
All right. What did we get?
(LOUD BOOM)
Oh hell, what did I break?
I just broke something.
Oh... For crying out loud!
Didn't see that coming!
We're screwed.
.
.
NARRATOR: Big Nugget mine,
southeast Alaska.
It's two thirds of the way
through the mining season,
and 18-year-old mining boss
Parker Schnabel,
has banked just 80 ounces
of his 300 ounce gold.
(BLEEPED OUT ABUSE)
He thinks a gold-rich pay-streak,
lies nearly eight metres down
on bedrock.
But, to get to it,
he needs to remove
a vast area of overburden.
PARKER: This is gonna work
pretty well, I think.
I'll pull all this in
and put it over here,
and then you can nose into that
and try put your butt end
on that side of that track.
OK.
This is dump site, right?
Yes, sir. The next 500 loads.
Instead of running the overburden
through the wash plant,
Parker's decided to dump it
at the edge of the claim.
We're gonna build ourselves a hole.
Earlier this season,
Parker got nearly $130,000 in gold
out of a shallow pay-streak
on Emerson Trench.
Now, here's a nice pay dirt. Money.
But, that pay-streak soon ran out.
I don't know
what we can do about it.
Then, Parker drilled Emerson Trench
in the search for a second pay-streak
that could lie on bedrock.
MAN: Looks like bedrock.
They hit at 26 feet.
Twenty-six is better
than I expected.
Now, Parker and Rick have dumped
the first 5,000 yards of overburden
off the edge of the claim.
Oh, look at that! Beautiful.
But, Glen Billeter,
Parker's gold recovery expert,
thinks the guys
are throwing away gold.
I'm gonna go down and get
some samples out of the,
out of the material
they're throwing away.
I hate to see them throwing
good material away so...
I've got to go down and test it.
I can't stand it.
I believe that there's gold
throughout this whole area.
and we just need to follow it all.
But, Parker has a different
idea about that and so...
I hope I can prove him wrong.
Parker believes there is a rich
pay-streak lying just above bedrock.
But, Glen believes the overburden
Parker is discarding,
contains good gold.
If there is gold in Glen's test,
Parker could be losing
thousands of dollars.
Holy crap!
This is like crazy stuff!
This is so rich it's like,
it's like scary rich.
We should be running it, it's crazy.
We're here to run ground,
not to throw it away.
It sickens my stomach to think of
what they're throwing away.
It just, it's sickening.
I think I need to show him this!
I'm gonna take this over.
I'm gonna go show him.
Parker.
(WHISTLES) Parker.
I don't mind waiting,
what I don't like is, you know,
Parker thinks it's OK
to throw away good material.
His grandfather would be horrified.
He's losing thousands of dollars.
He's throwing away
thousands of dollars.
He just isn't smart enough
to know that.
Parker, you're throwing away
a lot of money.
That's a good value, Parker.
Look at it!
The good ground is at bedrock.
Well, I'm...
If that means we're moving ground,
that pays five dollars a yard
to get to ground that pays 50,
then we're gonna do that.
If we can do four to five ounces
a day out of that material,
it's worth it to run it.
It's not four to five ounce a day
material, Glen.
Well, I don't know.
It's not.
And for you to say
I'm not smart enough...
I didn't...
That's a pile of (BLEEP).
Well...
OK?
I think we need to run the material.
That's just disrespectful.
We can sit here and we can say,
"You're throwing away bad dirt.
"Don't throw it away let's test it.
We don't know what's down there."
Or we can just do the (BLEEP) dig
and move the (BLEEP) dirt
and figure out what's
down there for ourselves.
North at Quartz Creek...
Todd's new turbo trommel has been
running dirt for two days.
JACK: The trommel is working,
it's working great.
If we feed it and it
eats it and digests it,
poops rock out the other end,
that's what we're after.
While they were waiting
for the trommel to arrive,
the Hoffman's continually
stockpiled pay dirt.
But now, the trommel
is working at full capacity
and their stockpile
is rapidly running out.
At 200 yards an hour, we're gonna be
out of dirt pretty quick here.
What have we got left?
A week or less.
So, we need to find another place
to go and quick.
I know it, I know it.
Ray Brosseuk, the trommel's designer,
has over 20 years' experience
of mining in the Klondike.
He thinks their next move
should be to a previously mined area
over at Calder Creek.
I think the solution is right here.
On this side here,
the dredge has gone through.
You need to take off
this material on this edge.
You've got virgin ground from
halfway under here to that bank.
The way the dredges are set up,
their first pass when they went in,
they had to sacrifice, they actually
buried virgin ground behind them.
In the first half
of the 20th century,
massive dredges mined Calder Creek.
They winched themselves forward,
digging as they went.
They processed the dirt and left
the tailings in wide arcs behind.
But, the dredges often
couldn't reach or covered up
what miners called side pay,
a narrow strip of land
at the edge of the valley.
Ray believes that underneath
the old tailings,
there is good side pay.
Virgin ground from here to the bank.
There's enough along this strip,
if you open this up,
you'd be able to mine this
the rest of the summer.
You know we're behind, you know
I'm trying to get to 1,000 ounces.
Yep.
If this was you, and you were in
my situation, is this what you'd do?
Exactly where I'd be. I'd get on
the Cat and open this up right now.
I'll have this opened up
in two days.
All right, guys, let's get started.
Todd now has to move tailings
two metres deep,
from an area the size
of a football pitch
to get down to the virgin ground.
For that, he'll need a dozer.
But, both dozers are out of action,
sitting idle at Indian River.
Until Mitch can fix the D10,
or parts arrive for the D9,
neither crew can open their new cuts.
Hey, Mitch. I've got some good news.
Yo, yeah.
Finally we got bolts for the nine.
Perfect.
Mitch has been waiting for new bolts
to replace the idler wheel
that holds the D9 dozer's
track in place.
But first, he has to get
the old bolts out.
The bolts up here are really tight.
They're not wanting to come out.
So, we're gonna try
the torque multiplier.
Hopefully we get them broke loose,
might have to put heat on them.
No, we're not getting anything.
We're having trouble
getting these bolts out.
It's really in there.
It's really stuck.
ANDY: Is it coming?
We just got the last bolt off.
(BLEEP) No, we just broke
the last bolt off.
Oh (BLEEP)!
We just broke the last bolt off.
So, this upper hole here,
our bolt snapped off in it.
We tried heating it,
soaking it with lubrication.
Nothing was working.
Until Mitch can remove the bolt,
Todd and Dave will have to wait
to open up their new cuts.
I'm getting really tired
of this dozer.
Clapped out piece of (BLEEP).
.
.
NARRATOR: In the Klondike,
both Hoffman dozers are broken down.
No-one is able to get to gold
on virgin ground.
Go ahead and pick your blade up.
At Indian River,
Mitch the crew mechanic,
is racing to fix the D9 dozer,
but a broken bolt
has halted any progress.
If I was Mitch right now,
I'd probably kill myself
because I have no patience for this.
There's nothing up here that's easy,
everything is hard.
Todd has arrived, desperate to
open up the new Calder Creek cut.
How's our dozers?
The bolt sheared off in there
and we can't get it out.
If we don't get our dozers,
I mean, we're not gonna get the cut,
then we're screwed anyway.
So, just stay on it, man.
No problem.
The entire Hoffman operation
is now at a standstill,
because of one broken ten-inch bolt.
(DRILLING)
Just drilling out these bolts,
trying to get a hole
put through them
so I can get some heat on this.
When you heat metal up really hot,
when it cools down it shrinks a bit.
Hopefully that will relieve it
off the threads and then,
I weld a bolt to it
and then try and spin it out.
(SPARKS CRACKLING)
If I do it wrong, yeah, I could
destroy this piece right here,
so I have to be very careful.
Looks like it's moving a little bit.
OK, it moved a little bit easy,
but now it's getting tight.
Then it locks up pretty good again
so I have to be real careful here,
I don't snap this bolt off
that I welded on.
So, there we have it.
It feels pretty good.
You can see the hole I drilled
all the way through.
I was able to get some lubrication
to come down through the threads.
This might not be how most people
would do it back home,
but out here, this is what
I had to work with,
so I'm really happy with
how this turned out.
At Porcupine Creek, Dakota Fred
has mechanical problems of his own.
He's broken the bucket
on his only excavator.
MELODY: We can't do any mining
until the excavator is fixed.
Without it, we're dead.
Fred's called in Kenny Waldo,
a local mechanic.
DUSTIN: Oh, it's big.
That's a major breakdown
right there.
(WHISTLES)
I can't believe that's gone.
Yeah, they just snapped right off.
Like they was nothing.
That's big, that's...
(DUSTIN SIGHS)
Both linkages to the excavator bucket
have sheared off.
Fred checks the damage.
They're twisted,
so they're not weldable.
They're totally out of service,
these are.
KENNY: It's an expensive fix,
you know.
If it was me, I think I'd bail...
(LAUGHS) And go get
something better!
Something newer.
But, Fred isn't afraid
of a challenge.
If we just take a piece of plate
and weld it right across.
So, if we took two of these,
put them together,
and then put the truss in between,
we would have it.
Fred's plan is to replace
the broken factory-made linkage
with a part made entirely
from scrap metal.
His bush fix will
have to be strong enough
to handle the full force
of the 26-ton excavator.
Now, Fred's only hope
is an old set of grizzly bars.
Gonna use them bars
to make the side links.
We're gonna take them to town
to the shop,
where we've got more tools
and more iron.
Fred's good at this,
but I don't know if he's this good.
If we don't get another excavator
or get this thing fixed,
we'll just sit here and...
..hope we were, wish we were mining,
because we're not mining right now.
All we're doing is
looking at broken stuff.
I can't do anything.
There's nothing I can do.
I feel kind of helpless.
The plan of attack right now is...
We have to quickly design something.
This is our master plan.
This is the way it was.
Then we're going to interpret it
a little differently,
but we'll make something
that will work.
By tomorrow noon, we'll be digging.
One-by-six steel.
(SPARKS CRACKLING)
Are we ready to do a little welding?
We got about an hour
of welding left on it.
We'll hook up the trailer,
haul everything back,
and...put it back together again.
At the Big Nugget mine,
Parker has dumped 5,000 tons
of overburden,
in his haste to get down to what
he believes is much better pay dirt.
But, Glen remains convinced Parker
is dumping large quantities of gold.
Come on! You've got to stop
throwing this stuff away!
We just need to run it.
Glen approaches the other
members of the crew.
I think that's the biggest mistake
we're doing right now
because I tested that wall
underneath those boulders
and there was good value
in one five-gallon bucket.
It's tough for me because
this is my first season but,
you're not gonna find gold if you're
just dumping dirt over a cliff.
He's throwing away a lot of gold.
Yeah.
I don't know if he's gonna
listen to me at all.
Ultimately,
it's gonna be his decision.
Big Nugget veteran Gary and his new
recruit Rick, confront Parker.
What's up, guys?
Look, you know I don't usually
question your decisions,
but we found out that there's
gold in this dirt and...
I got to know why are we tossing it?
Why aren't we running it?
Well, I mean it's marginally better
to throw it away.
You're guaranteeing we won't see
any gold if we keep doing that.
You think your grandpa would
throw this stuff away?
Gary, you've been here
longer than I have.
Traditionally, we've just
stripped off the top surface
and run everything from there
down to bedrock.
Right, he'd be running all this.
Everything would be ran.
If there's a fair enough amount in
it to cover the cost of running it.
It's worth it.
I mean, yeah, we can start running
some of it and see what happens.
I trust your guys' judgment and
we'll go ahead and give it a shot.
Let's start hauling it to the plant.
You got it.
(ENGINE STARTS UP)
It's a tough decision
for Parker to make,
because he's gambling with
the future of the mine on it.
Rick and Gary coming over to
talk to me was an unusual thing.
I expect it from Glen but...
Glen is pretty opinionated
about everything,
and so Gary and Rick,
it's a bit different.
They're a big part of the reason
why we've had a successful summer.
I think it's pretty important
to do what it takes
to keep their support
and keep the team together.
At Indian River, Mitch,
the Hoffman crew mechanic,
is finally putting their
D9 dozer back together.
Logan, just yell really loud if that
thing starts walking off the side.
LOGAN: OK!
Voila.
That was one (BLEEP) project.
(LAUGHS)
It was a long, hard day,
but we finally got it.
Now it's done, hopefully it lasts
a while before it breaks down again
and we can go push some dirt.
There is now one working dozer and
both Dave and Todd need it right away
to open up their new cuts.
But, Todd is the boss.
Hey, you're not gonna like it
but I got to take this D9, Dave.
Can we talk about this?
I'm not talking about it.
That's just the way
it's gonna go down so...
Come on, seriously,
let's just talk about this.
OK, here's the deal.
We've been supporting you,
you guys are kicking some ass.
Now I got to get this thing going,
I got to take the equipment.
That's the only thing making money.
I know but...
We're not gonna get to 1,000 ounces
unless we're running two plants.
I get that.
You guys are doing good.
But, let me tell you,
we're not setting any records.
We got to have two plants running.
I got to get this set.
That's the way it's gonna be?
You're calling the shots.
..how it's going down.
That's golden boy Dave
and sometimes I got to
pull rank on him,
even though he's in, in life,
he's probably a higher rank than me.
But, I don't really care.
It's my equipment, my gold mine,
and that's the way
it's gonna go down.
But Dave has other ideas!
I have a lot of time to make up,
so I'm up early,
I'm hijacking the dozer.
I keep expecting to see
Todd show up.
Once I'm in the seat, he's gonna
have a hard time getting me out.
(ENGINE REVVING)
What the frick?
No, I am not getting
out of this dozer.
"We're gonna talk about this"
was the last thing I heard,
then all of a sudden Dave's got it.
Todd's not real
happy with me right now.
He is the authority
and I am under his authority,
but, Todd is not my boss.
I don't wanna talk about it
a whole lot, but no matter what,
there's gonna be tension,
there's gonna be some issues.
Are they coming?
You're damn right they're coming.
With the D9, Dave can finally
start opening up the bench cut
that he hopes is rich with gold.
(CRASHING)
Oh, it's nice to have a dozer back.
Here we go.
Opening cut two at Indian River.
Good day.
At Porcupine Creek, Alaska,
Dakota Fred is back with
the excavator linkage
he welded from scrap metal.
So, what did you
create for us this time?
Well, let's see what we got.
Oh! There's our new linkage.
Watch your fingers,
that thing is heavy.
That's a monstrous piece.
Fred's crazy, man.
(GRUNTING)
Using Fred's handmade linkage,
they refit the 270's original bucket.
The rocks are so big out there,
that they won't even fit
inside that little bucket.
We're in a hurry.
We wanna get to the bedrock.
FRED: Well, it's all greased up
and put back together.
I'm gonna give it a try.
Fred did a tremendous repair.
I mean, I don't know anybody
that does repairs like that.
He's gonna put it to the test today
and with any luck it's gonna hold up
and we're gonna be able
to move some dirt.
Oh, Nelly Belle! Hyah! Let's go.
Fred's gonna start
digging in a minute
and then we'll find out real quick
if his part's gonna hold.
If it doesn't hold,
it will rip apart.
It will just fall apart real quick.
(BULLDOZER BEEPING)
So far, so good.
Feels good, really good.
It's always nice to get back
to digging again.
The improvised linkage is rock solid.
Dakota Fred is back on his way down
to glory hole gold.
(BULLDOZER BEEPING)
(METAL SQUEAKING)
(METALLIC CLANG)
But, after just two hours,
Fred's luck runs out again.
All right, game's over.
Game is over.
Another breakdown (BLEEP) thing.
This time, it's not the bucket.
Oh (BLEEP)!
It's the idler wheel mount
that Fred fixed last month.
The pin came out again.
This is Fred's makeshift
and I got to tell you how sick I am
of him fixing
makeshift stuff right now.
There is no temporary
in Fred's life.
When he says the word temporary,
he means permanent.
Forever.
Dustin's frustrated.
We've been talking about this
for three weeks and all you do
is keep adding steel to it and
letting it get more and more bad.
(BLEEP) weld some more stuff on it.
it will last a half a day at a time.
Yeah.
Just...
Well, figure out how long it's
gonna take you to get the part.
It would have already been here
had you listened to me.
They have some in Denver, order it.
I've been doing this
for three weeks, Fred!
I've been trying
to make this not happen.
I said when it happens, you're gonna
wish you had the (BLEEP) pin.
I didn't wanna spend a damn $1,000
on something I can fix.
Thinks (BLEEP) money grows on trees.
"Go buy a new one." Yeah, right!
I didn't wanna spend
a thousand bucks to buy a new one.
I didn't have the money.
At Quartz Creek,
Todd's massive new trommel
is making short work
of his stockpiled pay dirt.
The success of his season,
now depends on getting
new pay dirt at Calder Creek.
But, Todd has a problem,
Dave Turin has their only working
dozer over at Indian River,
and he won't give it up.
Fortunately, their mechanic Mitch,
is close to getting their
second dozer, the D10,
up and running.
I can see a lot
of metal debris in here.
That's not good because that's going
through all your hydraulic system.
Hopefully it hasn't
caused a lot of damage.
This piston had scarring on it,
so instead of it moving
freely back and forth,
it was seized in the bore.
I had to pound it out of there,
cleaned it up,
and getting ready to put
this thing back together,
and hope everything
is dialled in with it.
There we go, perfect.
(ENGINE STARTS)
Got this machine back running.
It's a good feeling.
Hopefully things
keep going this way.
With the D10 finally fixed,
Andy gets started moving
the old tailings at Calder Creek.
If this ground is as good
as we think it is,
the dividends are gonna be huge.
The only way we're gonna
see what's in it,
is to start clearing some ground.
.
.
NARRATOR: It's 9:00pm
in the Klondike.
Andy Spinks plans to work all night
stripping dredge tailings
at Calder Creek.
ANDY: I mean, it's a Friday night,
most guys probably go to town.
But, I didn't come up here to be
away from my family for five months
to go to town on Friday night.
I came up here to work.
There's 24 hours in a day.
There's not eight, not ten, not 12,
so as long as I can stay awake,
I'm gonna get Todd the yardage that
he needs to run through that plant.
At the Big Nugget mine,
Parker's crew has convinced him
to run the overburden
from Emerson Trench.
Hopefully we'll find some gold,
to get us over this kind of
mid season lull,
because we're having one
and it's tough.
They've run the wash plant
for three days,
costing Parker around $6,000
in fuel and labour.
It's very important there's gold
in this material, it's...
We've spent a lot of money
trying to get here.
Now they'll find out
if it was all worth it.
RICK: How's it going?
Good.
So, we've been doing some clean up
from this overburden on Emerson,
and we've got a fairly
decent amount of gold.
Wow.
I know you didn't wanna run that,
but we got something out of it.
So, we'll weigh her up
and see what we've got.
They need more than
four ounces of gold,
just to break even.
It's about 12 ounces.
12 ounces of gold is worth
nearly $20,000.
Because Parker gave in
and listened to his crew,
he's made a $13,000 profit.
Seeing gold in an overburden
gives us a real encouragement
that there's big gold
laying down on the bedrock.
I know we got off to a rough start,
but you've been doing a good job.
Thanks.
I appreciate it.
I hope that is the beginning of
a turning point in our relationship.
I'm gonna continue to do the best
job I can for the Big Nugget mine
and to make this place profitable.
It's an enormous amount
of pressure for a young person
that was thrown into running this
multi-million dollar operation.
It's a, it's, it's a big
responsibility.
At Quartz Creek...
..Andy Spinks has worked
through the night
to strip the tailings on
their new Calder Creek cut.
Todd arrives to see if
their new ground is good.
TODD: Hey, here's
the $10,000 question.
Do we really have
virgin side pay here?
ANDY: We do. That's all virgin.
(BLEEP) it goes a mile and a half!
Yeah.
We could have a hundred feet wide
by a mile and a half,
and most of the gold was
on this side of the valley.
Yep.
This might be our ace in the hole.
If we're gonna get to 1,000 ounces,
it's probably gonna be
because of this ground.
It doesn't get any better.
This is easy strip and a lot of this
is already thawed.
So, what I'm hoping to do,
is bring Henry Rennick in
and go ahead and poke some holes
up here on this bench.
This might be it.
Maybe our, maybe our fortunes
have finally changed a little bit.
Todd calls in Henry, a local legend,
to test the side pay.
JACK: What we're hoping is that
that's gold diarrhoea.
HENRY: Second hole.
Second hole.
As Jack and Henry drill,
they get a surprise visit
from Greg McNeil.
What's going on down here?
Ray and Todd got
their heads together
and thought this was virgin ground.
They thought that the tailings
had got stuck out over here,
was from the dredge.
This was all dredged.
It's all dredged clear to the creek.
They swore up and down
this hadn't been mined, oh yeah.
All been mined.
Henry's test results
confirm the bad news.
Well, it looks like the dredge dug
it down to about 13 feet here, Jack.
This is all dredge slickings
and dredge tailings.
This is all stuff
that the dredge washed already.
Todd's throwing a lot of eggs
into this basket.
The 'get out of jail free' card
just evaporated
right here in this hole.
The ground Todd was counting on to
hit his 1,000 ounce gold, is barren.
JACK: The dredge got all
the freaking gold. It's gone.
Wasn't any good right here.
This is worthless.
We wasted a lot of money right here,
you know, and time and effort too.
Is it gonna save our butt?
It's my fault,
so I've taken blame for it.
JACK: Calder is dead.
It's, it's over.
That's it, it's finished,
the fat lady sang.
You know, the whole thing
is over with, you know?
You can kiss it goodbye,
because it's not gonna happen.
Right now, I feel like I'm failing.
I never set out to be
a great leader of men.
I'm gonna lead you to the promised
land of gold, you know?
I never grew up thinking,
"Oh, some day" you know.
This is just where I find myself
and to be honest with you,
maybe I bit off more
than I can chew.
subtitles by Deluxe
.